Archives for April, 2013

No matter where you get your data it is clear that online pornography is very big business. Whether you look at attempts to measure page views for the top porn sites (over 5 billion per month), porn web sites (4%), porn search engine searches (10-15%) or numbers of sites blocked by filtering software programs ( million in CYBERsitter) internet porn is huge.

You can make the art of listening work for you in your recovery. Practicing real listening gives us a chance to practice basic recovery skills.

Addicts and people with intimacy issues are not particularly good at listening to other people. Really listening to someone demands a level of awareness and a kind of attending that every addict needs to acquire.

In my April 6 2013 post "New Anti Porn Laws on the Way" I described recent attempts by three countries to make and/or enforce laws that would effectively prohibit adult pornography on the internet, specifically in the UK, Iceland and Egypt.

I said that such laws were a long way off in the US. I received a correction from my acquaintance Dawn Hawkins at Morality in Media's

The manic hypersexuality often characteristic of bipolar disorder and the possibility of bipolar disorder in those diagnosed with sex addiction are sometimes difficult to untangle.

According to a handful of studies reported in the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) article “Opening the Door on Hypersexuality,” the prevalence of hypersexuality among people with bipolar disorder is anywhere from 25 to 80% with an average estimate of 57%. NAMI states:

You hear a lot about the potential evils of the online pornography epidemic. Now some governments are starting to make moves to seriously regulate the availability of pornography. Their attitudes and rationales are all over the map.

There are laws in the and elsewhere against pornography involving or depicting children. But there is increasing concern about pornography in general.

Many sex addiction therapists base their thinking on the idea that real or “relational” sex, sex with a real person as opposed to porn, cybersex or masturbation is healthier in some way. They tend to believe that a preference for non-relational sex is not entirely healthy and that it is often the basis of sexual addiction.

Other clinicians and many people generally feel that it is wrong to place relational sex on...